The NABJ Ethel Payne Fellowship is a $5,000 award bestowed to a worthy journalist.The travel award provides an opportunity for an NABJ member to gain foreign correspondence experience in Africa and the necessary assistance to complete a project or singular report on Africa.
The fellowship is named for the first female African American commentator employed by a U.S. network when CBS hired her in 1972. Known as the“First Lady of the Black Press,” Payne, a Chicago native, was a lecturer and columnist whose eloquent advocacy while reporting on the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s gained her national fame. Payne, who died in 1991, was the first African American female journalist to focus on international news reporting.
The deadline to apply is Jan. 13, 2020.